PTA's films tend to improve on rewatch & ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER follows that trend. Such a good mix of action, humor & gorgeous cinematography. The score on its own is hard to enjoy, but behind the film, it worked wonders. Penn, Infiniti, DiCaprio & Del Toro are the standouts. Predicting 6 wins 5*
Mitchum is exceptional in OUT OF THE PAST, a noir with a young Kirk Douglas as the tough gangster who is shot, robbed, tricked & blackmailed. A fun set of double and triple crosses with Greer as a great femme fatale & Huston as a nice girl next door. Some good writing and a merciless ending 3.5*
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT takes a new war & turns it into a globetrotting, suspenseful, funny film asking America for help. McCrea is a fantastic Hitchcock hero thrown into the deep end with the beguiling Day as his love interest. Filled w/ gorgeous-looking & exciting setpieces—one of Hitch's best 4.5*
Had to make sure MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON wasn't a Buñuel film, as its haunting score & surreal imagery reminded me of his previous work. Deren captures the eerie nature of dreams in this circular short film filled with imagery that'll stay with me for a long time. Still, it's a movie about dreams 3*
Feel ashamed for not realizing Fontaine played young Lisa in LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (am I just as out of touch as Stefan?!). Shocked this is only 87 mins as it felt much longer. Some pretty transitions & one downer of an ending, but the stalker/egoist relationship didn't interest me much 2.5*
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH may only be my third Powell & Pressburger film, but that means I have a lot of great films left to catch. Niven plays a WWII British pilot who misses an escort to heaven & falls in love on borrowed time. Nice use of Technicolor, even if the trial is a little jingoistic 4*
HOMELESS HARE was the cartoon included on my White Heat DVD's Warner Night at the Movies—hard to tell if I've seen this before one Saturday morning, or if I've just seen the trailer for Baby's Day Out. Very funny Looney Tune at a construction site where Bugs fights a worker who destroyed his home 4*
The White Heat DVD had Warner Night at the Movies w/ a trailer, newsreel, short & cartoon. Oscar-nom'd SO YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT GUILTY is one of 63 10-min films in the Joe McDokes series starring the voice of George Jetson as average Joe, here turning a $2 traffic ticket into a 10-yr stint in jail 3*
Let's see... The Odyssey is coming out later this year, so maybe read a dozen different translations in preparation for it? Or watch every Live-Action Disney Remake as a Moana project? Or read and watch every adaptation of Sense & Sensibility before the new one comes out in September? 🤣
I knew WHITE HEAT's (almost) final line thanks to AFI, but I was surprised by how the film ended. May have started with the best in my introduction to gangster Cagney. His mama's boy Jarrett is a psycho, but I liked his chemistry with undercover O'Brien. Some great writing; nothing was ever dull 4*
MILDRED PIERCE was nothing like what I expected (very Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore at times). Crawford plays the hard-working mother very well, while Blyth is excellent as her spoiled eldest (though the Kay story felt unnecessarily cruel). A surprisingly feminist noir with a terrific story 4.5*
Heard so much great stuff about RESURRECTION, but I was not ready for it. A Chinese story reminiscent of Cloud Atlas, I needed to read the Wiki plot summary after to try & make sense of the story. Lots of stuff I missed but the film looks gorgeous (that oner with time-lapse footage was amazing) 2.5*
AMARELA was basically over before it began. An admirable performance from Uehara, but just when things started to get interesting, credits began rolling. I'd feel worse for Erika if Brazil came back & won... Needed to use Google Translate on the title 2*
Glad I watched a YT primer before CHAINSAW MAN - THE MOVIE: REZE ARC, but probably could have enjoyed the film without it. A very strange world filled with devils, their hunters, and an awkward teenage love triangle. Sorta makes me want to watch S1 if only to spend more time with Denji & friends 4*
PETER HUJAR'S DAY takes a 1974 interview transcript & turns it into a 76-min experiment of a "film." Whishaw & Hall are both excellent actors & Sachs directs the heck out of this, inventing a lot for the two to do, but otherwise it's just an early podcast about a bunch of people I don't know. 2.5*
ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS was a #shortlist film that didn't get an Oscar nom but won a BAFTA. Pairs well w/ Extremist, telling of a Ukrainian teen trapped in a frontline bunker hospital w/ some patients & his family. Drones, Russian soldiers & bombs fill the 20 mins with dread. End cards made me sad 3*
LAURA is a classic '40s noir that excited me when I saw Preminger's name (but this is no Anatomy of a Murder). Andrews plays the slowly-growing-obsessed detective well, but the twists & turns weren't surprising & the supporting cast didn't work for me. Fun to see Price in a non-spooky role though 3*
Unsure how accurately PILLION portrays Dom/sub relationships (I hope real ones have more communication about limits to ensure both are fulfilled), but Skarsgård & Melling both give compelling performances & have a natural chemistry. Melling especially impresses w/ Colin's arc of finding himself 3.5*
Mimi Wilcox takes a hostage situation her grandmother went through, ties it to a Swedish bank heist & Patty Hearst's kidnapping & analyzes what we think we know about Stockholm Syndrome in BAD HOSTAGE. Glad to see #ACAB was just as true in the 70s as it is today. A very well-edited short doc 4*
Kind of forgot to include the title BALLERINA in this review...
Just because de Armas was underused in a NTtD action scene doesn't mean she needed her own JW spinoff. The 87North stunts, as always, are great with many exciting fight scenes & some truly unique set pieces (grenades, flamethrowers, plates). But the revenge plot is boring w/ a ridiculous ending 2.5*
Even at 2x, WAR OF THE WORLDS is atrocious. The only thing earning it half a star is Ice Cube's attempt at delivering the line "Move, bitch! Get out the way!" The effects, plot, editing, acting & product placement are all so bad—they're bad. Should've just counted Drew Gooden's video as a watch 0.5*
I need to start watching everything Benesch does. LATE SHIFT is a gripping 90 mins following her as a nurse just trying to complete her rounds in an understaffed hospital. The camerawork is tense & several scenes made me want to scream. Very sweet final shot followed by depressing credit text 4.5*
Finally sat down & watched Z-O-M-B-I-E-S, which my 5yo was watching nonstop for months. The songs & choreography have no business being so catchy. Bamm, My Year, Someday, Fired Up—all bangers. But a lot of the dialogue is exactly what I'd expect from a DCOM with Bucky a laughably bad villain 3*
GOOD BOY takes vibe-based horror & puts it in a dog's POV. Indy deserves all the praise he's gotten (such an extraordinary performance!), but the script leaves a lot to be desired. At only 72 mins, there wasn't much plot—humans are mostly faceless & there's little background given to anything 2.5*
THE HISTORY OF SOUND takes queer-film icons Mescal & O'Connor & pairs them up as Brokeback Musicians who meet before WWI, reconnect over a folk-music gathering trip & separate into their "normal" lives. The second half drags after O'Connor goes away but Cooper impresses in a small epilogue role 3.5*
ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU tells a broad story of Israeli occupation in Palestine over 70+ yrs & three generations. While the film seemed to drag at first, once it passed the midpoint, it became gripping & heartbreaking (especially when you realize nothing has changed & things have only gotten worse) 4*
Seems three different directors, a huge rewrite & firing your star may have been bad news for SCREAM 7. It's hard to care about Ghostface's kills when his victims are barely characters. Great to have Campbell back but the twins were wasted, the teens were hard to watch & this was the worst reveal 2*
Reminiscent of The Florida Project (h/t writer/producer/editor Baker) LEFT-HANDED GIRL follows a precocious 5yo (an excellent Ye) with a "Devil Hand," her older sister becoming a betel nut beauty, her mother opening a noodle stand & her grandmother funneling people out of Taiwan. Loved the ending 4*
The leads of THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Del Toro, Threapleton & Cera) are all fantastic, as is the always-great production design, but the story is bloated and ridiculous. Why have a cast this stacked if some of the stars are stuck with two lines? Maybe it'll improve on rewatch, but who has the time? 3*
